Sean C. Morgan
Of The New Era
It’s tough to win four games against a league team and the Sweet Home boys discovered that in a seeding game against Newport Friday night.
The Cubs managed to hold off the crushing late-game attack Sweet Home has thrown its way three times this year and take Sweet Home into double-overtime to win 67-59 in what essentially amounted to a tune-up for the state playoffs for both teams.
Newport built up a 15-10 lead by the end of the first quarter and expanded it to 26-19 at halftime, reminiscent of earlier games against the Huskies this season.
The Cubs held a five- to seven-point lead throughout most of the third. With his team trailing 34-28, with about two and a half minutes left in the third quarter, Gabe Kauffman broke away and dunked the ball, charging up the Husky offense and sparking a run to take the lead. Newport answered the dunk on an inbounds pass the length of the court to maintain a 36-30 lead.
But Kauffman insisted and put up a three to close the lead to 36-33. Colton Emmert followed with pair of long jumpers from the top of the key to give the Huskies the lead, 37-36, with 52 seconds left in the third period. Levi Marchbanks put up the Huskies’ fourth consecutive shot to expand their lead to 39-36. Newport followed with a two-pointer from inside, right at the buzzer, to end the quarter trailing 39-38.
The Huskies built up a four-point lead in the fourth, but Newport refused to back down, and Sweet Home’s free-throw shooting wasn’t up to its standard, allowing the Cubs to stay in striking distance, Husky Coach Tim Little said.
Newport’s momentum picked up in the final minutes of the quarter as the Cubs pulled within a point, 44-43, with 2:19 left and then both teams traded baskets to make it 46-45 with 45 seconds to play. From then on it was a battle at the line for the Huskies, as Newport put on a full-court press and Emmert was forced to call time out with two Cubs draped on him at Newport’s end of the floor with 38 seconds to play.
Marchbanks was fouled and made a free throw, but Newport tied Josh Riggs up on the rebound of Marchbanks’ second shot and the Cubs got the ball. With 10 seconds left, Newport tied the score when Travis Iverson snuck behind the Huskies for a back-door layup. Newport got one more shot off, which fell just after the buzzer blew, to leave the score tied at 47-47.
The officials started calling fouls in the overtime period and it cost the Huskies.
At the end of the first overtime, Sweet Home ran a play to Emmert “to get the last shot, and they called a charge on Colton with about two seconds left,” Little said.
With the Huskies up by two at the end of the period, Skriver, who was unshakable at the line, drew a foul and scored both free throws to tie the game 51-51 with no time left on the clock.
That’s when the Cubs went into overdrive and put together a run that remained largely unanswered by the Huskies.
“I believe if they play that well the next couple of games, they’ll go far in state,” Little said of Newport. “They played a very good game. “I think they played their best game of the year.”
The last three times the Huskies saw Newport, the Huskies have taken late-game leads and frustrated Newport, Emmert said.
When the Cubs are frustrated, Graville said, they tend to go one-on-one. This time they didn’t do that, and it made a big difference.
“This was the third defense I’ve seen from them in four games,” Little said. Newport ran a man defense on Ryan Graville, Emmert and Kauffman and left its two big players in the zone.
The defense left Newport vulnerable to an extent.
“Jared (Olsen) was our leading scorer in the first quarter,” Little said. “They were leaving him open.”
Olsen scored four of the Huskies’ 10 points, Little said, but the defense still gave the Huskies some fits until they could adjust to it at halftime.
“We came out tough in the third quarter,” Little said. “Our leaders stepped up. Gabe and Colton had big third quarters.”
Kauffman scored seven on the quarter, and Emmert scored six.
And Husky defense stepped up too, he said. To deal with it, the Huskies mixed up their screens and concentrated on ball screening and back picks while pushing the ball in transition.
A lot of the Huskies’ offense comes off of their defensive stands, Emmert said, and “After Gabe threw down, we got pretty excited.”
The Huskies also continued to come off the bench to put some points on the board and impact the game, Little said. He put Levi Marchbanks in during the first quarter to score a three, and Brent Moyer had a big bucket as well.
Little needed to get some guys in who could handle the pressure and confidently shoot the ball, he said. Dustin Hay helped out too, making no mistakes for the Huskies.
“Our bench is helping us out a lot,” Graville said. Marchbanks, Hay and all the other guys have been supporting the team.
Even outside the game, in practice, those players, along with freshman Gavin Kauffman and sophomore John Webb, have the rest of the team working hard, Emmert said.
Kauffman and Emmert led Husky scoring with 18 points each. Marchbanks, Graville and Olsen added seven each. Moyer scored four. Riggs and Hay played but did not score.
Cole Skiver led Cubs scoring with 26 points. Jay Torland added 18; Travis Iverson, 12; Daryn Palmer, nine; Tristan Metcalf, six; and Eddie Crowe and Marcus Luther, two each. Tyler Conklin played but did not score.
The Huskies face Seaside at 7:30 p.m. on Wednesday. The winner will face Hidden Valley in the Grants Pass area on Saturday. The winner of that game will earn a spot in the quarter finals at Gill Coliseum in Corvallis. Newport will face Tillamook on Saturday, with the winner earning a spot at Gill Coliseum.
“We’ve got one of our goals,” Emmert said. “We’ve just got to keep looking forward, take it one game at a time.”
“We should make it pretty far if we play like we should,” Graville said.
“At this point in the season, it’s the state tournament, so any team you face is going to be tough,” Little said. Winning Friday would have left only a single game to reach the quarter finals and a week to prepare.
Still, every chance we get to play, we tend to get better,” Little said. The team also tends to get a four- or five-game winning streak after a loss, the Huskies are looking forward to playing two games to reach the quarter finals.
“They’re resilient with their losses and fixing things that cost us,” Little said. “Typically, we come out on fire after a loss.”
“I think it’s tougher to play with a whole week in between,” Graville said. He likes having the extra game this week.
“As long as we win,” Emmert said.